Mike Gesicki ($4,100) has been a pleasant surprise for fantasy football this season, ranking as the No. 12 tight end heading into Week 9. The veteran has impressively scored a touchdown in all but one of his seven games and his six touchdowns leads all tight ends.
Gesicki has provided 12+ FPTS in 4-of-7 games. Most recently, the tight end caught 4-of-6 targets for 76 yards and a touchdown vs. the Titans this past Sunday, resulting in 17.6 FPTS and making Gesicki the No. 5 scoring tight end for Week 8.
Up next, Gesicki is facing the Falcons this Sunday. The tight end is only rostered in 19% of leagues on Yahoo and if you need a tight end to start this week due to bye weeks or injuries, should you be perusing Gesicki off the waiver wire?
Mike Gesicki’s Week 9 Fantasy Outlook
As noted above, Gesicki is the No. 12 tight end for fantasy football this season and he impressively ranks this high despite only running a route on 54.7% of his team’s dropbacks. Gesicki has been extremely efficient, ranking second among tight ends in FPTS per snap (0.36), which is attributed to his target-earning ability and his elite nose for the end zone. Gesicki is commanding a target on 15% of his routes and eight of his targets have come in the red zone, six of which he has converted into scores.
While Gesicki has only been on the field for about half his team’s dropbacks, his role saw a notable upgrade this past Sunday. In the shootout vs. the Titans, Gesicki handled a 12.5% target share and he ran a route on a season-high 71.7% of his team’s dropbacks. Before this, he hadn’t seen a route rate higher than 58.6%.
But why did Gesicki’s role increase? Well, this was the Bengals’ first game since Erick All (knee) went down for the season. All was logging 31.7% of the snaps before getting hurt and his absence opened up some more snaps for Gesicki.
Cincinnati has been far better with Gesicki on the field this season – the team is averaging 0.33 EPA per play with him on the field compared to 0.10 with him off – and Gesicki should continue to see a higher route rate this Sunday vs. the Falcons, who are a compelling matchup. Atlanta is giving up the seventh-most catches to tight ends (47) and this defense has allowed a tight end to score double-digit FPTS in 6-of-8 games this season.
Not only is Gesicki a strong start for Week 9, but he has a real chance to produce consistently for the rest of the season and targeting him off the waiver makes a ton of sense if you need help at tight end.
